The Case of the Missing Servant: From the Files of Vish Puri, Most Private Investigator (A Vish Puri Mystery)

Tarquin Hall has hit the nail on the head. Vish Puri is the slightly eccentric and now sadly disappearing product of the peculiar post independence period in India. These were anglophiles who were fanatic nationalists, religious but not extremist, socialists but not communists, proud of the achievements of independent India, the military and the civil service were their professions of choice and they were just as rigid about who gets in the club as the British were. Unfortunately these interesting characters are now being replaced by photocopied materialistic corporate types. If you've spent any significant time in India, the characters will come come alive to you. And thank god for the glossary. Even though I understand a rough approximation of Hindi, there were many unknown phrases and I found the glossary very helpful. Another reviewer has complained about having the glossary at the end of the book and would have preferred asterisks or parenthesis throughout. I disagree. I find that having the meanings of local phrases throughout the book, spoils the flow. As soon as I found out that there was a glossary, I just read all the phrases so I wouldn't have to keep going back to it. An excellent mystery, set in the turmoil of fast evolving modern Delhi.

The Case of the Missing Servant is the fiction debut from Tarquin Hall, but it hardly comes off as a freshman effort. This mystery novel features Vish Puri, India's Most Private Investigator whose slogan is, "Confidentiality Is My Watchword". Puri's cases mostly consist of investigating one of the parties of an arranged marriage, but our story finds Puri landing a case of much greater substance. High profile lawyer, Ajay Kasliwal, is accused of the rape and murder of one of his servant girls who turns up missing. Prior to being officially charged, Kasliwal hires Puri to find out what really happened to Mary. Armed with little more knowledge than this (not even Mary's last name), Puri and his team of operatives set about trying to unravel the riddle of Mary's disappearance. Because a direct approach of investigation is ineffective in India's culture, Puri and his team resort to various undercover operations in order to piece together the truth of the matter until the story reaches a satisfying conclusion. The characters of the story are pretty well done. Most characters are known by nicknames, and this is especially true of Puri's Team made up of Flush, Tubelight, Facecream, and Handbrake. Even Puri is known to many as Chubby (family and friends) or Boss (his operatives). Puri is portrayed as a smart but quirky detective, and he is very likeable. While a master at his craft, he doesn't have as good of a handle on his health. He is overweight, and he resists his wife's and his doctor's attempts to get him to eat better. While her role is minor, Puri's "Mummy" was one of my other favorite characters. She actually takes up the investigation (much to Chubby's chagrin) of the attempt on Puri's life early in the story. It would have been nice to have seen more of her in the novel. While not a comedy the story does have some funny moments. Chubby avoids air travel if at all possible, but he is forced to fly between Delhi and Jaipur on one occasion. His fear of flying leads to a rather humorous sequence of events. While it only lasts a page or so, it was a laugh out loud moment. The Case of the Missing Servant is fairly tame. It rarely contains foul language, and it is usually in Hindi. While every good mystery requires a body or two, none of the violence is graphic or gratuitous. The one thing that may trip some people up is the moderate use of Hindi or other foreign terms. There is a short glossary at the end of the book for most of these terms, but I hardly found this to be a problem. Overall, The Case of the Missing Servant is a very well done novel, and I hope to see future adventures of Vish Puri. Overall: A-

This book introduces a new fictional detective. The detective is Vish Puri, founder and managing director of Most Private Investigators Ltd, of Delhi, India. Vish Puri is a worshiper of a guru named Chanakya, who lived 300 BCE and "founded the arts of espionage and investigation." The case involves a servant girl who disappears from the home of a wealthy lawyer and the lawyer hires Vish Puri to find her as he has been accused of murdering the girl. Before Vish Puri can make a good start on his investigation, his client is arrested for murder. The case takes a number of twists and turns before being brought to a satisfactory conclusion. The book is interesting in the way that Indian culture is brought into the crime and the solution. Another thing I found interesting (since I work for an Indian-owned call center located in the United States) is the way in which Indian workers in call centers owned by Americans and operated in India are disparaged as "anti-Indian." For a good mystery and an excellent cultural tutorial, this is an first-rate book.

Having traveled extensively in India, and having had a lifelong fascination with the subcontinent, I had high hopes for Tarquin Hall's "The Case of the Missing Servant." I expected this tale of Indian private investigator Vish Puri to evoke the sights, sounds and smells of India's teeming cities and dusty countryside. I expected it to offer the distinctive feel of the many religions and cultures that share the region. I even expected it to include mouth-watering descriptions of the distinctive spicy flavors of Indian food, ranked as one of the world's three greatest cuisines. I was not a bit disappointed. "The Case of the Missing Servant" does all of these things superbly. And, oh, by the way, there's a pretty good detective story in here as well. Portly, pakora-munching, dapper-dressed Punjabi Vish Puri, called "Chubby" by his friends, would never be confused with Sam Spade or Philip Marlowe. He's more of a Delhi-based cross between Hercule Poirot and Perry Mason. The founder and managing director of Most Private Investigators, Ltd., Puri has observational skills rivaling those of "that Johnny-come-lately Sherlock Holmes," a detailed knowledge of 2000-year-old Indian principles of detection, and wide-ranging contacts in Indian society. Usually his work involves screening prospective matrimonial partners for the "arranged" marriages still common in India. But this time, aided by his team of undercover operatives nicknamed Tubelight, Facecream, Door Stop, Flush and Handbrake, Puri takes on the case of a servant girl who has gone missing from the household of a well-to-do Jaipur barrister. A badly beaten body dumped beside a roadway is identified as that of the missing girl, and evidence points to the barrister as her murderer. Can Puri clear the man who insists he's innocent? As he sifts through clues and chases tantalizing leads, Puri dodges bullets himself while never missing a meal. If you enjoy fast-paced, lucid, satisfying and understandable mysteries, you definitely should read "The Case of the Missing Servant." Don't be put off by Indian words and names that may be unfamiliar to you. The characters are well-enough defined that you can easily tell them apart, even if their names sound strange to Western ears, and a comprehensive Glossary defines all the words you need to know, including the many varieties of foods that Puri consumes throughout the case. I got hungry just scanning through the glossary...

Mr. Vish Puri ('Chubby' to his family, 'The Boss' to his employees), founder and director of Most Private Investigators, Ltd. (Confidentiality Is Our Watchword) is India's most celebrated detective, evidenced by his picture on the cover of India Today and the seven national and international awards he's won. He writes letters to the Times of India, scorns Sherlock Holmes as a Johnny-come-lately, favors Savile Row-made safari suits, silk dressing gowns, Sandown hats and to the consternation of his wife and doctor, greasy street food. His cases are mostly matrimonial in nature, families hire him to vet their sons' and daughters' intended spouses (the MPI, Ltd. offers a pricey Pre-Matrimonial Five Star Comprehensive Service) until he's called upon to look into the mysterious disappearance of a maidservant. The inimitable Mr. Puri is as at home in the poorest villages as in the most opulent and Moghul-esque marble palaces. In his dogged pursuit of the truth, he slips undercover at the drop of a hat and engages in judicious larceny and blackmail. At the Most Private Investigators, Ltd, the client always comes first, though The Boss is entirely capable of holding back information that will damage a bride's one chance at marriage. In short, Mr. Vishi Puri is a most engaging and resourceful character on the order of Rumpole or Precious Ramotswe. The Boss handles several cases at once with help from his fearless Mummy; his unflappable wife, Rumpi; assorted friends in high and low places; and a stable of investigators nicknamed Facecream, Flush and Handbrake. While investigating the title case, unmasking a balti-cook pretending to be the owner of the Indian Empress Restaurant, tailing a fiancé who's just too good to be true, and one who isn't; someone shoots at The Boss as he's tending his roof-top chili plants. His entire cadre of friends, family and employees is called into service. Through these coloful characters, Tarquin Hall provides glimpses into contemporary Indian culture--class distinctions, outsourcing, the Byzantine Indian legal system, the erratic infrastructure of modern Delhi that makes it necessary to fill one's washing machine with buckets of water, and domestic life. It is engaging and by turns hilarious and touching; The Boss' plane trip is one of the funniest things I've ever read, while his experience in the town next to the uranium mine brought a lump to my throat. Mr. Vish Puri does what he can, however, and as all the cases are wrapped up and the missing servant is found, the reader happily celebrates the Festival of Lights along with the Puri family. Mr. Hall uses many Indian colloquialisms for which he mercifully provides a glossary, and there are several allusions to Bollywood that might be unfamiliar to the reader (thank you, Google). While this was initially annoying, I came to appreciate the book not being dumbed down, and found I enjoyed recognizing words as they cropped up again. It's obvious that Mr. Hall ado